Belarus to Establish Council on Ensuring Technological Sovereignty

The Council of Ministers has adopted Resolution No. 256 of May 23, “On Ensuring Technological Sovereignty and the Procedure for Competitive Selection and Implementation of Certain Projects and Activities Financed from Budget Funds”. The document was published today on the National Legal Internet Portal.

Under the resolution, technological sovereignty is defined as the ability of the Republic of Belarus to possess critical technologies and critical goods necessary to ensure national security and the competitiveness of the economy.

It will be ensured through the following measures:

• research, development, adoption, implementation in production and/or modernization of critical technologies and critical goods included in the list of critical technologies and critical goods determined by the State Committee on Science and Technology;
• obtaining critical technologies from the economies of other countries without unilateral structural dependence;
• creation and modernization of production facilities for critical goods.

The government has also defined the criteria for selecting technologies and goods:

• import substitution orientation;
• importance for implementing socio-economic development priorities;
• technical and economic feasibility in the short term.

State bodies and executive committees, within their respective competencies, are required to coordinate the research, development, adoption, implementation in production and modernization of critical technologies and critical goods, as well as the creation and modernization of production facilities for critical goods. They are also required to include relevant projects in various state programmes.

The State Committee on Science and Technology has been instructed to establish an Interagency Council on Ensuring Technological Sovereignty. The council will consider proposals to include technologies and goods in the list.

The resolution also approves regulations governing the procedure for the competitive selection and implementation of projects and activities financed from the republican budget, including funds from the Republican Centralized Innovation Fund.